Russian Missiles Kill 9 in Kyiv, Hours After Trump Backs Off Air Defense Pledge

Russian missiles hit the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, early on Saturday morning, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 30 others. Local officials reported that the attack used ballistic missiles — powerful weapons that fly at very high speeds and are hard to stop. The strike came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would no longer allow Ukraine to build American-designed Patriot missiles, which are one of the best weapons Ukraine has to shoot down exactly this kind of attack.

The attack was not the first that week. Just two days before, another Russian missile strike also killed nine people in Ukraine. Russia appears to be stepping up its attacks as Ukraine runs low on the weapons it needs to defend itself.

Ukraine has been warning for a long time that it is running out of Patriot missile interceptors. These are the missiles fired from Patriot systems to knock enemy weapons out of the sky. Western countries, including the United States, gave Ukraine Patriot systems to help protect it from Russian strikes, but Ukraine is using up those interceptors faster than it can get new ones.

Last month, President Trump had promised that Ukraine could manufacture Patriot missiles under a special agreement called a license. This raised hope in Ukraine that it could eventually build up its supply again. However, experts warned it would still take a long time before Ukraine could actually start producing them.

On Friday, Trump changed his mind, saying he did not want to share such powerful technology because it might one day be used against the United States. This reversal was a blow to people in Ukraine, who had seen the promise as a sign that relations with Washington were getting better. Ukrainian officials had not yet publicly responded to Trump's new position as of Saturday morning.

The change of heart was especially surprising because it came just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Trump at the White House. The two leaders had discussed the idea of letting Ukraine produce Patriot interceptors. Zelensky also met with leaders of Lockheed Martin, one of the American companies that makes the Patriot system, and wrote on social media that their teams were already working toward co-production.

Back in Kyiv, the damage from the overnight attack was plain to see. A sharp smell of smoke hung over the city center, and fires had broken out in several places across the capital. Rescue teams dug through collapsed buildings, searching for anyone trapped inside. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said two apartment buildings had partially collapsed, making rescue work very difficult, and called it 'a horrific night for Kyiv.'